


Bubbles

by Rhinozilla



Series: Detroit 07 [17]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Adorable Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Connor Deserves Happiness, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Soft Connor (Detroit: Become Human)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 15:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18854275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhinozilla/pseuds/Rhinozilla
Summary: Connor gets stuck watching a lost little girl while they wait for her parents to come pick her up at the station. His social program was designed to adapt to human unpredictability, but somehow he didn't think that was meant to include a child who was determined to teach him how to blow bubbles.





	Bubbles

**Author's Note:**

> Does this need to exist? No. Is it dumb? Probably. But life got too real for me this week, and I needed something fun and light. So I apologize for none of this ridiculousness. Enjoy.

“Please, Connor. Just like twenty minutes,” Tina pleaded.

“No.”

“You’ve been moaning all afternoon about how there’s no new cases for you to work on—“

“I was not moaning…”

“—and yet you will not lift a finger now to help me, your fellow officer, in need.”

“No.”

“You dick. Fine, the way I see it, since you have no new cases, you got two choices, buttercup. Babysit my lost-and-found kid while I call her parents…or go help the others down in the archive room reorganize the cold case paperwork.”

“I would prefer the archive room assignment.”

“The ‘others’ include Gavin.”

“…Where is this kid?”

Tina laughed, sitting back on the edge of Connor’s desk, where she’d effectively cornered him. Unfortunately, Hank had the day off, so there was no one around to come to Connor’s rescue in this situation…not that Hank would have been much help against Tina anyway.

“We’ve got a kid room where we stash the little goblins—“

“I’m starting to see why the Captain doesn’t want you to sit with this child.”

Tina stuck her tongue out and folded her arms. “Literally just…go sit with this kid and make sure she’s okay. Patrol picked her up after she got lost in the park. Don’t you come with some kind of dealing-with-scared-kids program?”

“Yes, but that subroutine has not been active for some time. It could be…rusty.”

Tina cocked an eyebrow. “Programs can get rusty?”

Connor narrowed his eyes at her. “I’m only suggesting that someone with more experience and social skills with children should be left with a scared one.”

Tina exaggeratedly sniffed at the air, leaning toward him and wrinkling her nose. “Hm, smells like bullshit.”

Connor straightened in his seat. “Officer Chen, I am a detective for the Detroit Police, and am also the most advanced prototype android ever released by Cyberlife. My skillset is best utilized for investigating and apprehending criminals and protecting the peace.” He slowly stood up, taking advantage of his height difference over her. “I am not a babysitter.”

Tina stood off his desk, squared her shoulders, and narrowed her eyes…

Ten minutes later, Connor had stiffly sat himself in one of the cushioned chairs inside the Kid Room with seven year old Bonny Stevens.

The walls of the room were a pastel blue, with some old crayon marks on the walls from previous children. There was a meager assortment of toys, coloring books, and video game consoles sticking out of a bin in the corner. Bonny had, apparently, come with her own entertainment in the form of a half-full container of bubble liquid. She had sunk into the purple bean bag chair a few feet away and was methodically dipping the bubble wand into the container, pulling it out, and blowing warbly little bubbles in Connor’s direction. He had a theory that she was trying to get enough distance on the bubbles to actually land one on him.

For all that she was a lost child picked by police, the girl was not displaying the behavior that his subroutines had expected, but he was nothing if not adaptable. Bonny was sitting so deeply into the bean bag that her feet were lifted off the floor, and her puffy pink coat was bunched around her, so that she was mostly just a freckled face and a mop of brown hair sticking out of her green beanie hat.

“You’re the android.” She spoke loud and bluntly.

“My name is Connor,” he greeted. “I am an RK800 model android.”

Bonny just stared at him, casually raising her wand out of the liquid and blowing another series of bubbles. They fluttered out into the air, quickly slowing and drifting down to the carpet. One by one, they met the worn fibers of the floor and popped.

“I thought you’d be bigger.” She sounded unimpressed.

Connor wasn’t sure why that bothered him. “I was designed to blend in with humans. My size and appearance was chosen to facilitate my integration, not to scare or intimidate you.”

“Huh.” She gave a shrug.

An awkward beat passed.

Connor drummed his fingers on his knees again, glancing at the clock on the wall. “Officer Chen is calling your parents. They will be worried and glad to hear that you’re safe. They should be here soon.”

Bonny giggled and blew another series of bubbles. “You’re kinda weird.”

“Well…so are you, if we’re being honest.”

That made Bonny laugh, and Connor managed to assemble a small smile.

“You’re weirder!” she said.

“I am out of my element. Part of my programming includes comforting children who are upset or afraid. You are neither of those things, despite the fact that you were found lost and alone,” he pointed out.

“How old are you?” Bonny asked bluntly.

Connor was thrown slightly by the abrupt change in topic, but he adjusted. “I was activated 14 months ago.”

“So you’re like a baby.”

“I am a fully qualified and respected police officer for the city. Age is not a relevant metric for androids.”

Bonny raised her hands in mock surrender, and Connor frowned, looking away from her. Still, he could feel her staring at his LED, then at his Cyberlife issued jacket and android markings.

“Most androids got rid of their circles,” she said, pointing at her own temple.

“Well, I chose not to.”

“Why?”

“A personal choice.”

“Why?”

“Why are you blowing bubbles?” He changed direction on her this time.

Bonny gave an exaggerated shrug. “I like bubbles.” She looked over at him, and his programming identified her expression as suspicious, but that didn’t make sense. “Do androids blow bubbles?”

“I never have,” he replied honestly.

“I can show you. It’s easy. Here, watch.” She blew into the wand and sent a small cascade of soapy bubbles splashing through the air.

“I’ve been watching you do that for ten minutes. I know how bubbles work,” he chided gently.

“Then try it.”

“No, you just…keep playing with it yourself.”

“C’mon.”

“I’m okay, really.”

“Come onnnnnnnn.” She sat forward in the bean bag chair, stretching her hand out to try and foist the bubble wand at him. “Last time I was here, the other officer blew bubbles with me for like half an hour.”

Connor reluctantly took the little purple stick from her, not thrilled about the sticky residue of the bubble mixture that transferred onto his fingers. He looked from the stick to Bonny.

“Do you make a habit of getting arrested and brought to the police station?”

“Wasn’t arrested. Got lost.”

“Again?”

She shrugged.

Connor lifted an eyebrow at her. “You know, androids come equipped with an internal GPS. Human children like you might benefit from a feature like that.”

Bonny’s eyes widened a fraction, and then she smiled and let out one harsh, loud laugh. “That’s stupid!” She jumped up out of the bean bag and pushed her bottle of bubble mix at him. “Here, try it.”

Connor had no choice. He dipped the wand down into the container and drew it back out. He could see the oily film trapped in the circular end of the stick.

“You just blow on it,” Bonny encouraged.

“I know.”

She was a lost child, separated from her family, and possibly hiding her true distress through this pushy behavior. He could humor her.

He blew air into the wand. The film stretched and burst immediately.

“I don’t think you do, Mr. Fancy Pants Android.” She put her hands on her hips and smiled.

There was no cruelty in her face, despite the mocking tone of her voice. Connor tried to give it back, but she wouldn’t take it.

“No, try again.”

“I did try. I didn’t do it. Task done.”

“Not done. Try again.”

Where the Hell was Tina?

Connor sighed and dipped the wand in the mixture again, lifting it.

“You blew too hard. Gotta kinda just…” She made an O with her mouth and blew out air. “Like that.”

“Okay, okay,” he said, resigned.

He adjusted the pressure output on his breathing simulation. The resulting puff of air that he blew out on the second attempt was substantially weaker, and the film trapped in the wand barely wobbled.

“Oh, wow, you are bad at this.” Bonny squinted at the wand.

Connor was starting to get irritated, and he sat forward in his chair. “It’s too sensitive. The wand is too small, so the optimal air pressure needed to produce the desired effect is too narrow a window.”

“You blew too hard, then too soft. You gotta find the right—“

“That’s what I just said!”

“Come on, just try again.”

Connor growled a bit, rolling his shoulder where his jacket was bunching up. He recoated the wand and held it up. He adjusted his breathing again and started blowing at the wand. The film wobbled and started to stretch out.

“Oh? Ohhh?” Bonny encouraged.

The bubble popped.

Thoroughly irked now, Connor didn’t wait for Bonny to get after him again. He refreshed the wand and blew into it again. And again. And again.

Finally, after nearly two minutes of increasingly frustrated attempts, one tiny, almost accidental bubble came loose from the wand, wiggling around in the air.

“There it goes!” Bonny pointed.

Connor almost swatted her hand away, suddenly ridiculously worried that she would pop it and destroy his only successful bubble. Instead, the carpet murdered the sad little thing as it sank down and popped on the floor.

He was already holding the wand up again, determined now that he was starting to narrow the window of air pressure to the correct level.

This time, a series of four bubbles tumbled out of the wand, cheerfully floating up a bit before inevitably starting to cycle down toward the floor.

“Catch one!” Bonny bounced on her heels. “Use the wand, where it’s all sudsy.”

Connor followed her gesture and did so, lowering the wand under one of the sinking bubbles. It landed lightly on the edge, not popping. Connor froze.

“Now what?”

Bonny reached over and popped it.

“Hey!” he balked.

“You got the hang of it. Nice.” Bonny reached out to take her bubble stuff back.

Some disappointment crept up in his chest, but he relinquished them.

“Hey.” She dipped the wand back into the container, moving around to stand square a few feet in front of him. “See if you can catch one on your robot hands.”

“I don’t understand.”

“People can’t catch bubbles on their hands ‘cause the skin is all…I dunno, but you got plastic hands, so maybe you can,” she reasoned.

Connor looked down at his hands, where the slick bubble mixture had coated his fingers. He watched Bonny out of his periphery as he slowly retracted the synthetic skin from his hands, giving his fingers a smoother surface to attempt the bubble catching.

Bonny’s eyes were latched onto his hands, a gap toothed grin betraying her wonder. “Coooool.”

It was the most positive reaction he had ever seen a human give upon seeing an android without the human-imitative skin. The relief that he felt at the simplicity of it was complex.

Then Bonny was blowing into the bubble wand, and he had a new mission: catch the bubbles.

It was another five minutes before Tina was knocking and opening the door to rescue Connor from the goblin. Instead of another crime scene, the sight instead was of Bonny mercilessly blowing series after series of bubbles straight up into the air in front of her, while Connor was sitting on his chair, reaching out with white hands to catch them, adding to the collection of lumpy, foamy bubbles all over his fingers and the palms of his hands.

Bonny blew a few bubbles farther away, and he leaned as far as he could to catch them. He couldn’t leave the chair, as apparently that had been established as part of the rules to this weird game.

“Um.” Tina tapped her fingers against the file in her hands. “Play time’s over, guys. Bonny, your parents are here.”

Bonny stuck her wand back into the bottle, screwing the lid closed and shoving the sticky container into her jacket pocket. “Great!” She beamed over at Connor. “You should keep practicing—“

“Why?” Connor was rubbing his hands to pop the bubbles gathered there. “Do you plan on getting apprehended again, and then we’ll have to do this again?”

Bonny cackled as he stood up, wiping the filmy residue on the sides of his pants. He wasn’t ready when the girl hopped forward and gave him a hug around the middle. He froze and looked in alarm to Tina. The other officer gave a helpless shrug and mimicked putting her arms around to hug the girl back.

Connor awkwardly moved his arms around, hovering his hands over Bonny’s shoulders. He couldn’t…quite…figure out how to…

He gave up and patted her on the head. “Thank you, Bonny.”

Bonny popped away just as fast as the hug had come on, skipping over to Tina. She gave him a wave. “You’re still weird, but I like you.”

“Yeah…same to you.”

Tina laughed at that, steering the girl out of the Kid Room to reunite her with her parents.

“Thanks, Connor,” she said with a smile, letting the door close after her. “Hey, and just so you are aware, this room has security cameras. So the past half hour? Alllll recorded on video.”

“Wha—“

The door closed, leaving him alone in the room.

It took approximately thirty seconds for Tina to share the video to the computer terminal of every single officer in the precinct.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm tempted to start a slice of life ficlet collection focused on Connor getting to experience those little mundane things in life like blowing bubbles for the first time. Just let this dude live. Soooo...if you got any prompts in that arena, send them my way!


End file.
